— as Guyana observes Foster Care Month

MINISTER of Social Protection Volda Lawrence is calling on Guyanese to “open their homes and hearts” to children in need of foster care, as Guyana observes Foster Care Month, 2015.Foster Care Month is being celebrated under the theme: “Permanently keep the love for the foster children in your hearts, but let them go for a brand new start.”
The occasion seeks to increase awareness of the foster care programme and to obtain support and “buyin” from the community.
The aim of activities during this month is to encourage more persons to open up their homes and hearts and take in a child that is in need of alternative care. Foster care is a family- based solution for a child in need of out-of-home care.
Minister Lawrence in a statement said despite foster care, every effort must be made for a child to be cared for by his or her biological parents; foster care offers continued family-based care, support, guidance and love to a child who has to be separated from his/her biological family.
It is a temporary arrangement until the child can be safely returned home.
“The government is making it a priority to ensure that families are provided with supports and assistance to prevent unnecessary separation of children and to return children from institutional care to their families if they can,” she said.
There are currently over 700 children in residential- care institutions with approximately 250 in State- care institutions, who should be in the care of their parents.
The minister added: “To ensure that children in need of alternative care have opportunity for a family-like setting, foster care is the best option and the programme will be extended. More persons need to come on board to meet the care needs of children who are living in care centres which are not the ideal place for the positive care and development of children.”
She said it hoped that at the end of the awareness- month programme, there would be an increase in the number of families that would be willing to provide a child with a temporary home.
But Minister Lawrence noted that they will also have to be willing to work towards the children getting an opportunity to be reunited with their biological families.
Foster care is an appropriate alternative care option for a child and most Guyanese families have provided informal foster care to a child who lived in the family until they are grown.
But the Foster Care Programme of the Child Care and Protection Agency (CPA) is formal and subject to reviews, permanency planning and the return of the child to the family if they can.
During this month, the awareness sessions will enlighten the population of the workings of the programme and how interested persons could be part of safe- guarding the nation’s children and being part of their right to a future filled with hope and promise.